Priest talent
= Introduction = Each talent has a quoted description of the talent, which was taken from the game. They all assume that you've maxed out the talent. The number of points required to max it out is also given. Obviously, sometimes you won't wish to do that. Since most people read talent guides when they're starting out, I've tried as much as possible to explain the relevance of the various skills. However, with the best will in the world, it takes some playing to really understand some of this stuff properly. A classic example of this is Mind Flay, which does not look brilliant on paper, but experience tells you is vital. Pretty much everyone will tell you that certain talent trees are better than others. This is true of priests as well but not to the same extent; there are no completely useless trees. Commonly accepted wisdom is that the Shadow Tree is best for levelling and PvP, the discipline tree is strong, especially for higher level characters, and that the holy tree has some useful talents and an awful lot of dross. A lot of priests use shadow and discipline to get to 60, but then switch over to discipline and holy to be the best healers. It remains to be seen whether the disc/holy builds will remain as viable when the new PvP rules come into play. Although this is not intended to be a guide to talent builds, there's basically only one levelling build worth considering up to level 20. It is this: *Levels 10-14: Max out Spirit Tap *Levels 15-16: Max out Improved Shadow Word: Pain *Levels 17-19: Three points into Shadow Focus. *Levels 20: Mind Flay = Shadow tree = Spirit Tap *5 points *Gives you a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target. For the duration, your Mana may regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds. This is the 100%, single most useful talent to get at low levels. Ignoring the maths of the situation, what this means is that a) you get huge mana regeneration after a kill and b) you get fairly good mana regeneration even ignoring the 5 second rule. If you are a new player, you probably don't really appreciate the significance of this. The point is, it's perfectly possible to take on a single mob, drain your mana and then have to sit to recharge. Spirit Tap pretty much means you won't have to. This reduces downtime, allowing you to level faster. It also means that you may well have mana when you get an add, which makes it more likely you will live. An important thing to note about this talent is that you must land the killing blow to kill the monster. If you are soloing, this happens all the time. If you are in a large group, it pretty much never happens. Mind Flay is usually a good finishing move for grabbing the kill in groups of 2 or 3. Note that warlocks need kills to get soul shards, so don't just kill everything to keep your mana regeneration up. At very high levels, it's not that significant, but for starting characters, it's a must. Blackout *5 points *Gives your Shadow damage spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. Again, another very useful talent. Personally, I wouldn't put any points into this until lvl20, because I'd conentrate on getting spirit tap and mind flay first. However, the 10% effect is useful in PvE but essential in PvP. Here's the PvP strategy: bind level 1 SW:P to a key. Note that for this to work, a higher level SW:P cannot be active. Fight your opponent until he starts to run. Give chase. Spam SW:P1 against your opponent. Sooner or later you will get the stun effect, giving you 3 seconds to do something really nasty, and probably winning the match. Shadow Affinity *5 points *Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 25%. Very few players find a use for this in their arsenal. 25% threat reduction is great, but causing more damage is better. Threat reduction only works in groups, and in large groups you don't tend to cast many shadow spells. Best to skip it. Improved Shadow Word: Pain *2 points *Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 seconds. Max this as soon as you can. SW:P lasts for 18 seconds by default. This brings it up to 24 seconds. That's a 33% increase in duration. For those of you who don't know, increase in duration always results in a proportional increase in damage. 33% increase is a very useful payoff for just 2 talent points. Shadow Focus *5 points *Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 10%. No-one can ever remember which is focus and which is affinity. This is the useful one. It's not a great talent, but you need to put 3 points somewhere to get to tier 3 abilities. This is where you should put those 3 points. Spell resistance from mobs your own level is a fairly rare occurence. Resistance from mobs higher happens all the time. Basically this translates into actually being able to damage something of a slightly higher level than you. When you hit lvl40 or so, you'll be powerful enough to take on mobs 2 lvls higher than you without problems, this skill makes it possible. Mind Flay *1 point *Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed. Get it. At level 20. The description of this talent is useless, sadly. The problem is that it only describes Rank 1 Mind Flay. The spell gets further ranks as other spells increase. The really important thing about this spell is that it's mana efficient. Now, efficiency can be overrated, but in this case it's crucial. This talent more than any other than Spirit Tap will reduce your downtime. As soon as you get this, take smite off your button bar and put this on instead. And never use smite again. Note that this is a channelled spell, and probably the only channelled spell you'll use for a long time as a priest. The important thing with channelled spells is: if you get hit, you lose some of the effect of the spell. As a consequence, only cast this when the mobs aren't attacking you or you have a shield in effect. This may seem like a lot of good reasons to have mind flay, but it gets better: Mind Flay slows your target. Casting this on a mob during a pull will delay the mob by 1.5 secs on its way in. Even better, casting Mind Flay on a runner pretty much guarantees the mob will die. This is for the following reasons: #Runners seem to change direction when they are hit by mind flay. Since they were running away from you, the chances are that this change will be in your favour. #Runners don't leave the range of a mind flay during its cast. (This may cause them to change direction.) #Party members can catch it more easily. #A single mind flay usually kills a mob. Two mind flays are usually required for an elite. It's also a pre-requisite for Vampiric Embrace, but frankly, that shouldn't be a deciding factor. Improved Mind Blast *5 points *Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 seconds. A few things to note about Mind Blast. #It's your highest DPS spell. #It's pretty mana inefficient. #It has a cooldown of eight seconds. The cooldown means that you can cast three Mind Flays while waiting for Mind Blast to become available again. After putting 2 points into it, however, this becomes two Mind Flays. If you put 5 points in, you'll still be doing two Mind Flays between blasts. Note that if you do use this talent to its full advantage, your mana drain can become quite significant. Now, in a hectic combat, spells will get mixed up all the time and this calculation is less relevant, but that the first two points of Improved Mind Blast net you a significant DPS increase, whilst the last three points are nearly wasted. An okay skill, but not one I'd spend points on if I weren't going heavily into the shadow tree. I'd certainly not bother with more than 2 points. Improved Psychic Scream *2 points *Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream ability by 4 seconds. 13.3% reduction in a cool down. Not great. Near useless on a PvE server. However, psychic scream remains one of the truly vital PvP abilities, and it's a prerequisite for silence. Get it if you're going deep into the shadow tree, or if you're on a PvP server. Improved Fade *2 points *Increases the duration of your Fade ability by 10 seconds. Most priests reckon that, if the rest of your party can't get aggro off you in 10 seconds, you should be ditching the party, not spending talent points. There is another school that points out that Fade lasts 1/3 of its cooldown time, fully improved fade 2/3 of its cooldown time. These priests swear by it. Negative aggro most of the time is not to be sniffed at. Absolutely no use for PvP, obviously. Shadow Reach *3 points *Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 20%. This would be a brilliant talent except for the problem that priests have a fairly short cast range. This doesn't really change that. If it was 50%, it would be a great talent. As it is, get something else. To be honest, the tier 3 talents don't interest me very much. I think points are better spent on tier 1 or 2 talents in order to reach tier 4. Vampiric Embrace *1 point *Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow damage you deal for 1 minute. To some extent, this talent is too satisfying to pass up. With five party members on less than full health, you heal a point for every point of damage you do. However, damage+healing is actually a very bad combination, one of the few times as a priest that getting zerged by mobs is actually your fault. Obviously, the utility in smaller groups and in soloing is smaller in numerical terms. It's fairly low cost, so you might as well slap it on the average mob. My personal advice is to use it to heal when health is at about 75%, but use proper heals otherwise. Most priests use this when they're in shadowform. Silence *1 point *Silence the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds. A spell with a 45 second cooldown that might as well be called the "I win" button against casters. Best cast just before the enemy finishes casting a big spell, because it causes the spell to fail and then leaves them unable to do anything for another 5 seconds, quite often resulting in 10 lost seconds. In PvP, opening with a psychic scream and following with a silence can put a caster opponent out of action for 20 seconds. That's most of the fight. Shadow Weaving *5 points *Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. Another great talent. 3% might not sound like much, but after stacking, 15% extra damage is insane. My favourite trick with this is to use the same Rank 1 SW:P as you use to proc blackout twice at the start of the battle. Then use your full SW:P and follow up with a Mind Flay. Usually you don't even bother with Mind Blast, this strategy is so powerful. It's a pre-requisite for Darkness, and if you're going to shadowform (and if you're this far up the tree, you should be) you've got to put points here anyway. Darkness *5 points *Increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%. In any normal shadow build, you'll put 3 points into darkness and then get shadowform. However, I'd advise maxing this out after getting shadowform. This gives you *15% extra damage from Shadow Weaving *10% extra damage from Darkness *15% extra damage from Shadowform That's a damage bonus of 40%. There's pretty much no other build for any class in the game that can do that sort of damage on all its main damage spells. (For those of you who don't know, there isn't a single holy damage spell worth casting) Shadowform *1 point *Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical damage done to you by 15%. However, you may only cast Shadow and Discipline spells while in this form. If you read a lot of talent guides, you'll undoubtedly repeatedly hear that the top tier ability in a tree isn't worth having. This one is. You have a massive damage enhancement and serious damage reduction (more useful when soloing than grouping). It also looks really cool. The catch is that Vampiric Embrace and Shield are your only ways of healing/protecting yourself and your group. Typically, use this until a member of my party falls below 50% health and then switch back to normal mode. In instances, I tend to leave it switched off, because it's just a bit too dangerous to not be able to heal at the drop of a hat. Small problem: you can't see your shield when you're in shadowform. I really hope they're planning to fix this. Although this isn't a talent build guide, it is worth mentioning that however you get to level 40, this talent is so good it's worth the cost of a respec to pure shadow to get it. = Holy Tree = Note that the holy tree is a bit on a talent point drain. It's not actually possible to take every talent. Also note that the synergies between the talents that stress criticals aren't really enough to warrant taking them. Indeed, you're better of not taking any of them. Basically, there are 30 points worth of useful talents in this tree. Sadly, having spent those talents, the top tier talent isn't worth taking. Although this isn't a talent build guide, it's worth mentioning that the first few tiers have pretty obvious best choices: #Improved Renew is much, much better than Holy Specialisation. #Spiritual Healing is massively more use than Improved Smite. #Subtlety is the only talent worth getting in Tier 3. Improved Renew *5 points *Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%. Renew is your best heal. This makes it better. A very good tier one ability. If you are going shadow or disc, it's a good place to put "spare" talent points. If you're going holy, max it immediately. Holy Specialization *5 points *Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 5%. A talent that makes heals more bursty. The fundamental problem with this is that you can never rely on the crit, so you often end up wasting the extra benefit. It also enhances crits on holy damage spells, but none of them were any good to begin with. Don't be misled by the name, a holy priest can easily ignore this talent. Spiritual Healing *5 points *Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%. A great talent for anyone investing in the holy tree. This stacks with Improved Renew, giving a 25% bonus to renew heals. Improved Smite *5 points *Increases the damage of your Smite spell by 10%. Smite doesn't do enough damage. 10% extra doesn't change that. A great way of wasting five points. Completely useless, even to a pure holy priest. Holy Fire *1 point *Consumes the enemy in flames that cause 90 to 116 Fire damage and an additional 28 Fire damage over 8 seconds. Generally regarded as useless. Inspiration *5 points *Increases your target's armor value from items by 25% for 15 seconds after getting a critical effect from your Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, or Prayer of Healing spell. A fabulous effect. Unfortunately, it only works on crits. Obviously, if you do decide to get this, you'd be highly advised to also get Holy Specialization. Subtlety *5 points *Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20%. In lower end instances, if you're getting zerged, it's usually your party's fault. In high end ones, it's usually simply that you have to heal a lot. A vital talent for a high-end healer. Not convinced I'd bother with it at lower levels, however. Improved Healing *5 points *Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells by 15%. A great talent for a heavy-duty healer. Note, however, that this doesn't improve flash heal's efficiency. Indeed, without this talent, the efficiency of flash heal and greater heal is actually fairly similar. Improved Flash Heal *2 points *Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Flash Heal. Well, it's worth pointing out that if you're not being attacked, this talent isn't useful. However, if you are being attacked, there's a good chance that you're trying to heal yourself. As a consequence, it falls into the category of skills that are vital exactly when you are about to die. Just for this reason, this talent is worth taking. Improved Prayer of Healing *2 points *Reduces the Mana cost of your Prayer of Healing spell by 20%. A better mana reduction than Improved Healing, and for only 2 points. Note that prayer of healing is only really worth casting if you have three damaged party members. It really depends on how often you use prayer of healing. Personally, I didn't until I hit about level 45. Now I have to use it all of the time. Try doing the temple fight in Zul'Farak without constantly hitting Prayer of Healing. Spirit of Redemption *1 point *Upon death, summons a Spirit of Redemption that heals nearby friendly targets for 318 to 360 and another 343 over 21 seconds. Note that this isn't a passive ability, it's a spell you can cast upon yourself. Now, if you're in a group you don't know, you have to ask yourself "Do I want to encourage them to let me die?". In groups you know well, unfortunately, the truth is that the redemption effect is rarely enough to turn the tide of battle. A great idea, poorly executed, don't bother. Divine Fury *5 points *Reduces the casting time of your Smite and Holy Fire spells by 0.5 seconds. Smite and Holy Fire are useless. Reducing the casting time of spells you shouldn't be casting isn't a good use of talent points. Master Healer *5 points *Reduces the casting time of your Heal and Greater Heal spells by 0.5 seconds. Big heals take 4 seconds to cast. Judging exactly when to start a big heal is a matter of judgement, and this talent ameriorates the problem somewhat, but far from completely. Hey, if you'd wanted a priest to be easy to play, you'd have rolled a paladin. The other effect of this talent makes it a must have for a healer: it vastly increases the maximum heal per second you can deal with. Holy Nova *1 point *Causes an explosion of holy light around the caster, causing 80 to 88 Holy damage to all targets within 10 yards. The effect also temporarily reduces your threat level against nearby targets for 5 seconds. Blizzard are completely changing this in the next patch. Early reports suggest it still won't be any good. = Discipline Talents = Unbreakable Will *5 points *Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 15%. Not really much use at lower levels, because no-one does it often enough for it to matter. Pretty vital later on. Pretty much all high level builds will use this. Silent Resolve *5 points *Reduces the threat generated by your damage spells by 20%. This is an odd talent. It's no use to primary healers, higher level characters will want Unbreakable Will instead of this. So, although it's actually quite good, pretty much the only time you would ever want to take it would be between levels 21 and 39. But it's only any good for damage dealing in PvE, which limits it's usefulness. Wand Specialization *5 points *Increases your damage with Wands by 25%. Wands will never be a serious source of damage at high levels. This talent won't change that. Martyrdom *2 points *Gives you a 100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6 seconds after being the victim of a critical strike. The Focused Casting effect prevents you from losing casting time when taking damage. Useful, but not fabulous. The principal use of this is damage dealing when you don't have a shield up. A healer shouldn't be being hit in the first place. A pre-requisite for Focused Casting, which is pretty useful in tight spots. Improved Power Word: Shield *3 points *Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds. Basically, allows you to keep the shield up all the time. If you've got the mana, no-one will ever succeed in damaging you again. The best Tier 2 discipline talent, and worth spending 8 points in the tree to get. Improved Power Word: Fortitude *2 points *Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%. More health is as good as a pre-heal of every character. Excellent, but no-one will ever notice the effect. Mental Agility *5 points *Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%. A good solid ability. The instant cast spells are: *Power Word: Fortitude *Power Word: Shield *Shadow Word: Pain Focused Casting *1 point *While active, you no longer lose casting time from taking damage. Lasts 8 seconds. If you want to prevent spell interruption, first try shielding yourself. If that fails, this can be a pretty useful ability. Mental Strength *5 points *Increases your maximum Mana by 10%. If you're this far down the tree, take this. A great talent. Improved Inner Fire *3 points *Increases the effects of your Inner Fire spell by 45%. Actually pretty useful. Obviously, the less time you spent actually getting hit, the less useful this is, but nonetheless, inner fire should pretty much always be on, and typically counts for half of your armour. This is equivalent to another 25% of your total armour. Improved Mana Burn *2 points *Reduces the casting time of your Mana Burn spell by ?. Mana burn definitely takes too long, but I still can't recommend this. It's pretty much only useful against paladins and shamans in PvP. Mobs and other casters have too much mana to begin with. Inner Focus *1 point *When activated, reduces the Mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect. Excellent ability. What you need when you're about to cast prayer of healing. To a great extent, probably more useful than improved prayer of healing, which is one of the reasons you see more disc/holy priests than holy/disc priests. Meditation *5 points *Allows 15% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting. Again "while casting" actually means "in the five seconds after casting". Not really enough. Force of Will *5 points *Increases your spell damage by 5% and the critical strike chance of your offensive spells by 5%. The discipline tree really tails off near the end. This is too little, too costly, too high up the tree. Divine Spirit *1 point *Holy power infuses the target, increasing their Spirit by 23 for 30 minutes. 23? Take a look at your current spirit stat. Any questions? Actually, this is slightly misleading. At lvl 54 you can upgrade this to a whopping 35. Pathetic. Category:Stubs